


Fish Pie

by Fabrisse



Category: Lewis (TV)
Genre: Community: lewis_challenge, Lewis Secret Santa, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 06:16:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3109175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fabrisse/pseuds/Fabrisse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James' past is stranger than anyone knows.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fish Pie

**Author's Note:**

  * For [paperscribe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperscribe/gifts).



It had been a nice dinner party. Robbie was a little surprised that he was giving nice dinner parties, but having Lizzie and Tony, Jean and her husband Jonathan, along with Laura and her new friend Jeremy had made for a lovely evening.

Robbie looked at the big dish in the center of the table and called out, “Are you ready for this yet?” 

James poked his head out of the kitchen and said, “No, nor will I be until you come in and give a hand.” He shook his head mock-woefully. “I do all the cooking, and now you desert me for the clean-up.”

“Oi, who scrubbed this place from top to bottom while you were working on that big fraud case?”

James put his arms around him and kissed him. “Don’t remind me. I don’t know which was worse, finding out that one of the major think tanks here was skimming millions in funds or your dishpan hands.”

“They seemed to do what you wanted them to.” He leaned up for another kiss. “D’you think Laura’s happy with that lad?”

“I think they have the potential to be. Laura definitely deserves someone who’ll chase her, and the age difference is less than ours is.”

Robbie said, “Yeah, but not by much. And I think it’s different for women. It shouldn’t be, mind, but a woman with a younger man…”

“Is still looked at askance?” James went over and got the rest of the silverware off the table. “Probably, but they have a great deal in common. You can see Jeremy adores her to pieces.”

“Not that much. He doesn’t know a damn thing about pathology or crime scenes.”

“No, but they met through her orchestra, and they enjoy most of the same things apart from her job.” James started back in on the washing up. “We’re the odd ones out, if you think about it. Most of what we have in common is through our job. Well, now there’s the sex, too.”

Robbie chuckled. “There is indeed.” He put away the last remnants of their dessert. They could enjoy it tomorrow evening. “Mind you, I was a bit worried that you’d gone off me when I saw what we were having?”

“Fish pie?”

“Exactly.”

There was a long pause. “Robbie, why in the world would fish pie mean I’d gone off you? Is it ‘summat froom up North’?”

“Never try that accent again, lad, and no. More that fish pie was why you left seminary, or so you said, so I didn’t know if it was your usual swan song.”

James shook his head. “It was a bit more complicated than that.”

“I’m sure it was. I just don’t know the story, like, so I can’t tell if there’s some type of symbolism going on in that head of yours.”

“The only thing it symbolized was a meal that met everyone’s dietary requirements. I’m just relieved no one was vegetarian.” He leaned against the sink and began running it full of soapy water. “I’m ready for the big dish now.”

Robbie brought it in and handed it to James. He got a sponge and began wiping down the table and cooking area. 

James sighed. “You know, you could just ask me if you want the whole story.”

“Why did you leave seminary, then? Did they really kick you out?”

“Tell you what, let me get this draining and pour us both small brandies. I’ll meet you on the sofa.”

James sat down and took a sip of his brandy. “So, Robbie, what did you want to know?”

Robbie resisted the urge to say “the whole story” because James would probably start with one of the early saints and still be talking at dawn without explaining the fish pie. 

“All right. What’s bothered me is that you said something about it being frivolous. And I know it took me a week or two to work out you had a sense of humor…”

James snorted. “Better part of a year, more like.”

“Even when you’re being a facetious sod, you really aren’t frivolous.”

James sipped his brandy. “I’m really not. Did I ever tell you that I learned my nickname at school was ‘WC’ -- for Wolfgang Christ? Frivolity is not my forte.”

“Though I will say, you do a nice range in mashed potato curlicues.”

“Thank you, sir.” James laughed. “It boiled down to the principle of fasting.”

“‘Course it did.”

“Not only were we all studying to take holy orders -- most of us as priests -- but we were supposed to be living to a somewhat liberal version of the Rule of Saint Benedict, not that any vows were taken.”

“Got it. You were following this Benedict’s rules.”

“Rule, Robbie. You know chastity isn’t that difficult for me.”

Robbie leaned over and kissed him slowly. “Could have fooled me.”

“Now that we’re together, I have a hard time keeping my hands off you, but if we weren’t together, I’d be fine without.”

Robbie nodded. “Same for me, lad. It was nice with Laura and all, but compared to what I had with Val -- what I have with you -- it was a comfort not a passion.”

It was James turn to kiss his lover. “Let me tell you the story later.”

Robbie said, “No, now, because I’m fairly sure ‘later’ will never come.”

“Most of my compatriots lamented that chastity was the hard one. A few said it was obedience.”

“I can imagine you were one of those.”

“Yes, I see now that I was. But, at the time, I kept arguing that the one we were all failing at was poverty. Don’t get me wrong, we weren’t what most people would call extravagant with our clothes or our standard of living.”

“But?”

“But. The whole point of fasting, whether on Friday or during Lent, less Lent, and Advent, is to save money to give to the poor. When the rules were made, fish was cheap. In many cases, it was free because it was caught wild or donated salted.”

“Lots of anchovies, then?”

James chucked deeply. “Probably pilchards up here, but that’s the way to think of it. How much do you think the ingredients for tonight cost?”

“Don’t know, but I could probably find the receipt somewhere.”

“The fish alone cost about forty pounds. Some of that’s because I went with wild caught and more expensive types of fish because it was a party, but I probably couldn’t have done it for under twenty-five pounds even without going for the salmon and monkfish.”

“An’ that’s without the vegetables and dessert and all.”

“Exactly. Father Chisholm was right. I was making a point by doing fancy piping. I was pointing out that we were keeping to the letter of the law by having fish without keeping to the spirit of it. God knows there was nothing left out of the day’s housekeeping money to give to the poor. We’d have done better to have gone to Wimpy Burger for that.”

“I take it you didn’t buy the fancy salmon for it, then?”

James said, “I didn’t. I bought the little cheap shrimp instead of the big expensive prawns, too. We had a simple salad with it, and I made the apple crumble -- which Father Chisholm complained about mightily as not being allowed during Advent -- with apples from our own orchard which made it the cheapest thing we ate.”

“So you were being a facetious git and Father Chisholm…?”

“He told me to pray on my failings. And I did. That’s when I realized that my relationship with God was probably too complicated for me to be a priest. Don’t me wrong, Will’s questions to me and some of the other things I heard and saw were also a big part of it. But two days after Father Chisholm told me to pray, I picked up my guitar and walked out. It was less dramatic than it sounds. I’d already completed my exams.”

Robbie rolled his eyes. “Of course you had.”

“One day, they’ll get stuck like that and just keep rolling around in your head and then where will you be?”

“Lying next to you in bed, probably.”

James kissed him deeply. “Let’s go to bed right now.”

“I don’t know, seems early to go to sleep since you’re not on call.”

James hauled him to his feet. “Did I say one word about _sleep_?”


End file.
